San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-07-25

passed without Slgnlhcance. Ihe young
man gently raised her face She was young
and comely albeit marked with a half
frightened, half-yacant sorrow. Amen"
said Brother Gideon grayely.
He mounted his horse and turned TO 90.
Brother Silas had clasped his powerful arms
around both women, and was holding them
in a ponderous embrace.
go forth, young man, into the wilder
ness"
The young man bowed his head, and urged
his horse forward in the bleak and barren
plain In half an hour every yestige OF the
camp and its unwhOlesOme surroundings
was lost in the distance II was as II the
strong, desiccating wind which seemed to
spring up at his horses feet had cIeanly
erased the tiimsy structures from the face OF
the plain, swept away the lighter breath Of
praise and plant and dried up the easy-fOw.
ing tears The air was harsh but pure; the
grim economy of form and shade and color
in the level plain was coarse, but not vulgar;
the sky above him was cold and distant but
NOT repelIant; the moisture that had been
denied his eyes at the prayer meeting over.
flowed them here; the words that had
choked his utterance an hour ago now rose
to his lips. lie threw himself from his horse,
atom in the boundless plain-lifted his pale
face against the irresponsible blue and
prayed.
He prayed that the unseltish dream Of hi,
bitter boyhoOd, his disappointed youth,
might come to pass. lie prayed that he
might,in higher hands become the humblest
instrument of good to his fellow man. He
prayed that the deficiencies of his scant edu
b,, 30, haIplaaa
isolation, and his inexperence might be
overlooked or reinforced by grace. lie
prayed that the Infinite Compassion might
enlighten his ignorance and solitude with
manifestation of the spirit; in his very weak
ness he prayed for some special revelation,
some sign or token, some visitation or gra-
cious unbending from that coldly lifting sky.
The low sun burned the black edge Of the
distant t,lles with dull eating fires as he
prayed, lit the dwarfed hills with brief
but Observation-Disclosures, and then died out
The lingering trade winds fired few vol
leys over its grave, and then lapsed into a
chilly silence. The young man staggered to
his feet; 1t was quite dark now, but the
coming night had advanced few starry
videttes so near the plain they looked like
human watch-ires. For an instant he could
trembled far down at the entrance Of the
valley. Brother Gideon recognized it. 1t
was in the lonely farmhouse Of the widow OF
the last circuit preacher.
The abode of the late Reverend Marvin
Hitler remained>in the disOrganiZed condition
he had left ii when removed from his sphere
of earthly useleSsneSS and continuous acct
dent The struggling fence that only hal
inclosed the house and barn had stopped at
that point where two deacons who had each
volunteered to do a days work on 1t had
completed their allotted time. The building
Of the barn had been arrested when the half
load Of timber contributed by Sugar Mill
brethren was exhausted, and three windows
given by christian seekers" at Martinez
painfully accented the boarded spaces for
the other three that unknown friends" in
Tasajara had promised but not yet supplied.
On the clearing some trees that had been
felled but not taken away added to the gen.
eraf incompleteness.
Something of this Unfinished character
chung TO the widow Hitler and asserted itself
in her three children, one of whom was con-
sistently posthumous. Prematurely old and
prematurely disappointed, she had all the
ineXperience of girlhOOd with the cares of
maternity, and kept in her family circle the
freshness Of an old maids misOgynistic an
tipathies with certain guilty and remOTse-
full consciousness of widOwhOOd. She sup
ported the meager household to whether
husband had contributed only. the extra
mouths to feed with reprOachful astOnsh-
ment and weary incapacity. She had long
since grown tired of trying to make both
ends meet Of which she declared "the Lord
had taken one" During her two years
widowhood she had waitedv on Provi-
dence who by pleasing local fiction had
been made responsible for the disused and
cast-off furniture and clothing which accom-
panied with Scriptural texts, found their
way mysteriouSly into her few habitable
rooms. The prOyidential mamma was not al
ways fresh; the ravens VINO fed her and her
little ones with -four from the Sugar Mills
did not always select the best quality. Small
wonder that sitting by her lonely hearth
stOne-a borrowed stove that supplemented
the unfinished fire place-surrOunded by her
mismatched furniture and clad in mistitting
garments, she had contracted a habit of
shifting during her dreary watches In her
weaker moments she attributed it to grief;
in her stronger intervals she knew that it
SpTallg IRON udhlp anu ufdugnI.
In her apathy the sound of horses hOOfs
at her unprotected door even at that hour
neither surprised nor alarmed her. She lifted
her head as the door opened and the pale face
Of Gideon Deane looked into the room. She
moved aside the cradle she was rocking, and
taking saucepan and tea,cup from a chair
beside her, absently busted it with her
apron, and pointing to the vacant seat said,
Take a chair" as quietly as if he had
stepped from the next room instead of the
outer darkness.
"Pll put up my horse first" said Gideon
gently.
80 do" responded the widow bri efy.
Gideon led his horse across the enclosure,
stumbling over the heaps of rubbish, dried
chips, and weather-beaten shayings with
which it was strewn, until he reached the
unfinished barn, where he temporarily be-
slowed his beast. Then taking rusty axe,
by the faint light of the stars he attacked
one Of the fallen trees with such energy that
at the end of ten minutes he reappeared%at
the door with an armful of cut boughs and
chips, which he quietly deposited behind the
stove. Observing that he was still standing
as if looking for something, the widow lifted
her eyes and said, "Ef it's the bucket 1
ICChOn yea Hnu IL At lIC oplllS, MlClc OhO
Of them foolish Filgee boys left it. I've
been that tuckered out sens shutdown, amt
had the ambition to go and tote it back"
Without word Gideon repaired to the
spring, filled the missing bucket, replaced
the hoop on the loOsened slaves of another
he found lying useless beside it, and again
returned to the house. The widow once
more pointed TO the chair, and Gideon sat
down. Its quite spell sens you wos